congratulations. I look forward to reading more articles in In Development
I imagine some development projects require more study than others, and that study requiring lots of verification and expertise can reduce the velocity of aid execution. Are there some broadly and/or narrowly applicable technologies that are raising the volume and efficacy of aid in general—say LLMS or whatsapp or camera phones—or in specific areas—maybe Lenocapovir being easier to administer than higher-frequency PrEP, or solar panels being easier to put to use at different scales than combined cycle gas plants that need complex engineering and high-caliber customers, say
what do you think of the Malawi Miracle’s fertilizer subsidy policies? are we close to technologies that make more natural gas available for fertilizer production, or make meaningfully more fertilizer production from electricity economically viable?
The Jakarta transit article gave me so much hope for my beloved traffic-clogged tropical South American cities. I imagine driver wages account for a lower portion of taxi and mass transit operator expenses in developing countries than they do in rich countries. But buses and taxis seem also to have a bigger mode share in developing country cities than in rich country cities. What effects do you expect from AVs in the developing world? Should we look at rideshare/ AV taxes to fund mass transit?
Is regenerative braking going to make EVs especially useful in the Andes?
Lauren has written interesting articles on electricity pricing in Africa. Do the World Bank’s new stances on nuclear and hydroelectric plants stand to make much of a difference? Can solar power installation be a worthwhile make-work program for countries with lots of unemployment, electricity shortages, and messy political economy around construction of new power plants and power lines?
Big stars of poverty reduction like China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam seem to use a lot of coal. Are there desirable policy changes that could make more coal available to poor countries? When a country like the US figures out how to reduce coal use, does it usually become much cheaper for poorer countries to buy it?
in my middle-income country the 2 dollar sunglasses at the supermarket as well as the four hundred dollar mobile phones are made in China. with China still so efficient at production of low-end goods, is there much opportunity for other poor and middle income countries to gain manufacturing market share in textiles etc?
is there a localized flying geese thing, or like a gravity model of development? if emigration helps source countries a lot, should donors, MDBs etc focus on helping promising countries low and middle income countries that receive lots of economic migrants and border less promising low-income countries? for example South Africa seems to have some interesting industrial capabilities, has a lot of native poverty, and also receives lots of migrants from other poor countries. in that way it may be a better candidate for credit and investment than its neighbors, and bolstering its success may also help its neighbors a lot. is this kind of thing worth development professionals’ attention? I also think of India as a manufacturer of generic drugs, fertilizers, and solar panels, and an importer of natural gas, oil, coal, and Himalayan hydro that could become more abundantly available to other poor countries if more investment in nuclear power, solar, mass transit, EVs etc can reduce their import volumes. Egypt is another country with nuclear power on the way, plenty of desert to build solar in, lots of manufacturing, plenty of refugees, and a large fertilizer production industry
are GLP-1s about to be protagonists in a massive public health success story in poor and mid income countries? should we expect benefits for economic growth?
does it help for most everyone in a country to speak the same language? should states, dev orgs try to get Portuguese-dubbed content subtitled in Portuguese in front of audiences for fluency and literacy purposes (English, French, Hindi, Arabic stand out too)?
thank you for working for poverty relief and more happiness!
congratulations. I look forward to reading more articles in In Development
I imagine some development projects require more study than others, and that study requiring lots of verification and expertise can reduce the velocity of aid execution. Are there some broadly and/or narrowly applicable technologies that are raising the volume and efficacy of aid in general—say LLMS or whatsapp or camera phones—or in specific areas—maybe Lenocapovir being easier to administer than higher-frequency PrEP, or solar panels being easier to put to use at different scales than combined cycle gas plants that need complex engineering and high-caliber customers, say
what do you think of the Malawi Miracle’s fertilizer subsidy policies? are we close to technologies that make more natural gas available for fertilizer production, or make meaningfully more fertilizer production from electricity economically viable?
The Jakarta transit article gave me so much hope for my beloved traffic-clogged tropical South American cities. I imagine driver wages account for a lower portion of taxi and mass transit operator expenses in developing countries than they do in rich countries. But buses and taxis seem also to have a bigger mode share in developing country cities than in rich country cities. What effects do you expect from AVs in the developing world? Should we look at rideshare/ AV taxes to fund mass transit?
Is regenerative braking going to make EVs especially useful in the Andes?
Lauren has written interesting articles on electricity pricing in Africa. Do the World Bank’s new stances on nuclear and hydroelectric plants stand to make much of a difference? Can solar power installation be a worthwhile make-work program for countries with lots of unemployment, electricity shortages, and messy political economy around construction of new power plants and power lines?
Big stars of poverty reduction like China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam seem to use a lot of coal. Are there desirable policy changes that could make more coal available to poor countries? When a country like the US figures out how to reduce coal use, does it usually become much cheaper for poorer countries to buy it?
in my middle-income country the 2 dollar sunglasses at the supermarket as well as the four hundred dollar mobile phones are made in China. with China still so efficient at production of low-end goods, is there much opportunity for other poor and middle income countries to gain manufacturing market share in textiles etc?
is there a localized flying geese thing, or like a gravity model of development? if emigration helps source countries a lot, should donors, MDBs etc focus on helping promising countries low and middle income countries that receive lots of economic migrants and border less promising low-income countries? for example South Africa seems to have some interesting industrial capabilities, has a lot of native poverty, and also receives lots of migrants from other poor countries. in that way it may be a better candidate for credit and investment than its neighbors, and bolstering its success may also help its neighbors a lot. is this kind of thing worth development professionals’ attention? I also think of India as a manufacturer of generic drugs, fertilizers, and solar panels, and an importer of natural gas, oil, coal, and Himalayan hydro that could become more abundantly available to other poor countries if more investment in nuclear power, solar, mass transit, EVs etc can reduce their import volumes. Egypt is another country with nuclear power on the way, plenty of desert to build solar in, lots of manufacturing, plenty of refugees, and a large fertilizer production industry
are GLP-1s about to be protagonists in a massive public health success story in poor and mid income countries? should we expect benefits for economic growth?
does it help for most everyone in a country to speak the same language? should states, dev orgs try to get Portuguese-dubbed content subtitled in Portuguese in front of audiences for fluency and literacy purposes (English, French, Hindi, Arabic stand out too)?
thank you for working for poverty relief and more happiness!